When George Hill learned before tipoff of the season's most pivotal game that he'd lost his job as the Spurs' starting point guard, it wasn't the sort of news he saw coming. Unlike most everybody else, Hill was unaware of coach Gregg Popovich's history for doing this sort of thing when down in a playoff series.

“I didn't know anything about how he changes things up like that,” said Hill, moved to the bench in favor of Tony Parker for the first time this postseason. “Everything is new to me.”

Hill shouldn't feel too left out. Everything about this Western Conference semifinal series is new to everybody else in silver and black, too.

Thanks to a 110-96 victory in Game 3 on Friday night — one that included a comeback from 18 points down and a record-setting fourth quarter from a former Spurs draft pick — the Suns are one win away from turning the tables on their traditional postseason tormenters in the most dramatic fashion imaginable.

The Suns are up 3-0 in the series, a lead that has not been overcome in NBA history. The Spurs' season is on life support now, and they know it.

“We have to do what we have to do,” said Tim Duncan, whose 15-point, 13-rebound night was marred by seven missed free throws. “We have a lot of pride on this team. We'll come out in Game 4 and try to do it one game at a time.”

Dragic, obtained in a 2008 draft-day swap with the Spurs, erupted for 23 of his 26 points in the fourth, giving the Suns their first lead of the game with 11:22 to play, then leading an unlikely horse race to the finish line.

Scoreless until the final minute of the third, Dragic's fourth-quarter outburst set a record for a Spurs' opponent in the playoffs, topping the 19-point frame Phoenix's Charles Barkley dumped on them May 18, 1993.

Dragic made four of his five 3-pointers in the fourth, keying a 39-24 fourth quarter that began with the Spurs still clinging to a one-point lead. At one point, Phoenix scored on 10 straight possessions.

As such, the Suns won despite a harmless 16-point, six-assist night for Nash, and an ineffectual seven-point night from Amare Stoudemire.

“They picked us apart in the fourth quarter,” said Manu Ginobili, who led the Spurs with 27 points. “It was embarrassing.”

The Spurs opened Game 3 with the urgency of a Game 7. When Parker wiggled baseline for a tough basket with 8:27 left in the second quarter, the Spurs were ahead by 18.

The game began to unravel at the foul line. With a chance to bury the Suns early, the Spurs missed nine of 17 free throws in the first half.

Parker missed four in a row with the Spurs up 16, and his return to the starting lineup was hardly triumphant.

He finished with 10 points, was 5 of 17 from the field, and wound up getting a shoulder X-rayed after a first-half collision with Stoudemire.

“My shoulder was hurting the whole game,” Parker said.

By halftime, the Suns had cut their deficit to six, 50-44, and the Spurs were sweating. In the fourth, Dragic sparked a flat-out panic.

So good was he, scoring 11 of 13 points during the Suns' fourth-quarter run, that Phoenix coach Alvin Gentry left Nash on the bench for most of it.

“I was confident for this moment,” said Dragic, who totaled four points in the first two games of the series.

The Spurs have little reason for confidence now. Barring the making of history, they are staring down an early vacation. The team they used to own now owns them. The whole world seems topsy-turvy.